PTI
Chandigarh, March 11
Punjab Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema on Saturday defended the AAP authorities’s excise coverage, saying the state has seen a “substantial” jump in excise income assortment and liquor mafia have been “crushed”.
He additionally mentioned the Congress members ought to have stood by the Punjab authorities as a substitute of approaching the governor to hunt a probe into the excise coverage.
Winding up the dialogue on the finances estimates through the Assembly session, Cheema mentioned for the primary time, the state has registered a forty five per cent jump in excise income and it crossed over Rs 9,000 crore.
“But it’s unhappy that you just (opposition) are opposing it (the excise coverage). The Congress get together ought to have stood by the federal government for a forty five per cent improve in income,” Cheema mentioned.
He claimed that underneath earlier governments, liquor from Chandigarh and Haryana was once “bought” in Punjab.
Supply from liquor vends in Haryana and Rajasthan abutting Punjab used to trigger a loss to the state exchequer, Cheema mentioned including it has been stopped, Cheema mentioned, including smuggling of liquor has been ended by the AAP authorities.
“We crushed the liquor mafia in the state.” On March 7, a delegation of Punjab Congress met Governor Banwarilal Purohit, demanding {that a} probe be ordered into the state’s excise coverage, which the opposition get together alleged had obtrusive similarities with the now-scrapped Delhi liquor coverage.
Under fireplace from the opposition members over the state’s excellent debt, Cheema mentioned the Punjab authorities is recurrently repaying the dues.
It isn’t just Punjab, all states are borrowing, he mentioned.
The Punjab finance minister knowledgeable the House that the state authorities has repaid Rs 36,046 crore of its debt this fiscal.
Debt has gone up by Rs 24,000 crore to this point, Cheema mentioned and asserted that Punjab is following all pointers of the Centre about borrowings.
Sharing figures of debt raised throughout earlier regimes, Cheema mentioned a sum of Rs 28,592 crore was raised throughout 2007-2012, Rs 99,304 crore throughout 2012-2017 and Rs 99,505 crore throughout 2017-2022.
